While the surge in the ECB's balance sheet has been discussed to death
on these pages, with a particular emphasis on what we believe the key correlation driver-cum-pissing contest of 2012 will be -
namely the relative size of the ECB vs Fed balance sheets - it is often
best to see things for oneself. Such as the fact that the balance sheet
of the European Central Bank, which has been accused of not printing,
has grown at the fastest non-pre apocalypse pace in history for a
modern central bank (the only exception is the Fed, whose balance sheet
grew from under $1 trillion to over $2.2 trillion in the aftermath of
the money market collapse in about a month), increasing by EUR800 billion, or over $1 trillion, in six months,
to E2.73 trillion (obviously an all time record). Annualized this is an
increase of over $2 trillion or more than the Fed did in all of QE1.
So, just what happens next year when the banks box Draghi in a
corner and the Goldmanite decides to actually... print. Perhaps this is a
question, as before, left best to our German readers, who unlike their
detached from reality peers in the US, know that hyperinflation is and
can be all too real.